D&D General Gaming From Above vs Gaming From Below

[Shardstone]

The big secret is that History from below is a better way to deliver setting than History from above. There's a reason the large majority of Fantasy fiction, even if it does include the elites, starts from either an outsider's perspective or a more rural perspective. Generally, in Fantasy, the common people communicate the majority of the setting, while the elites communicate the majority of the plot. A great example of this is the Witcher games, but you can see it in most pieces of Fantasy.

This is a general rule of thumb, not a hard and fast rule, and there are many exceptions to be had. Often though, these exceptions tend to rely on a blend of commoner and elite for their main characters. A great example is A Song of Ice and Fire. Though Ned Stark is a noble (and, in a way, a royal too), his attachments to the smallfolk and their influence on him permeates the story through both his perspective and that of his kids. And of course, A Feast for Crows is almost entirely about the little people; though, before that point, many characters have a huge amount of interaction with those "beneath" their social status.

Hobbits are a great example of the general rule in action. Aragorn's story and all that stuff is what the plot is about, but the story (and its heart) starts with rural hobbits.

In the realms of D&D and the wider fantasy RPG scene, the talent many writers have is greatly increasing. Likewise, the trends of today are reflected in the works they create, sometimes directly, sometimes subconsciously. As a result, we get more adventures that do what OP is talking about. And again, this is just a general rule, not an absolute.

 

[Clint_L]

Gaming from Below, 100%. I love stories that are grounded in stakes that are local and driven by personal goals and conflicts. Characters that are secretly the Chosen One or the hidden princess or whatever are supremely uninteresting to me.

 

[pogre]

In a zero to hero game like D&D my campaigns progress in scope with the PCs' experience usually. Tier One is very below and tier four is usually above. Doesn't have to be that way, it's just the way my games usually go.

Something I did in the campaign we just finished up was pretty different. Every other session for the first 30 or 40 minutes we would have a privy council meeting for the Emperor. Each player had a role - head of the guard, head of the guilds, archbishop, etc. and all had agendas they were trying to push forward. It was always an animated, fun experience and my son still complains about how the Vizier backstabbed him politically on a motion he thought would pass easily. Anyway, my players really enjoyed when the actions of the Privy Council affected the world and sometimes the adventures as well.

It was a game within the game, but allowed us to sort of play on both the above and below level.

 

[GMMichael]

In recent discussions about Modiphius’s new release of Raiders of the Serpent Sea I was struck how much this product brought the PCs into contact with everyday folks. Raiders, villagers, pilgrims trying to make their way in the world. Their customs, their challenges and motivations as well as their games and entertainments. This was in sharp contrast to their previous product Odyssey of the Dragon Lords that focused on Kings, Gods, Champions and Commanders. . .

Give me real identifiable people first. Show me where they live and how they live. Then, and only then show me the folks that rule over them. I’ve got no problem with Kings or great lords as quest givers, but I need to see what that throne is built upon for it to mean anything to me in the context of a fantasy game.

Want to know how the common folk live?

At sunrise - throw on a shift and let the chickens out. Feed the pigs. Muck the pig pen. Grab a hoe and tend vegetables. Help Da bail the hay. Community meal (yay!). Repair the fences. Take Dasher out for exercise. Play Throw the Stone as time permits, pray to the sun and moon gods, and do it all again.

It got on my nerves that A Song of Ice and Fire was all about the highborn, until I realized how boring it would be if it were about the lowborn. This is not to say that commoners can't do interesting stuff - but their adventures largely end when they start butting up against property rights and god-granted authority. (Thieves are a notable exception to this, but it helps thieves to have one or two highborn friends when it comes to legal matters.)

 

[payn]

Want to know how the common folk live?

 

[Clint_L]

Want to know how the common folk live?

So, no one is going to play a farmer. The PCs are all adventurers for some reason or another. But plenty of them might have been farmers, or another "common" job before whatever happened that started their heroic journey.

 

[Yora]

The issues of nobility and the problems of high level politics never had any interest to me.

I don't mind if any characters are aristocrats, but in a game I want to deal with things that are immediate and feel important.

 

[ezo]

why is this presented as an alternative to what @Micah Sweet said? it's just the same thing phrased differently,

It wasn't meant to be presented as an alternative. I was agreeing with @Micah Sweet in my own words. That's all.

 

[GMMichael]

So, no one is going to play a farmer. The PCs are all adventurers for some reason or another. But plenty of them might have been farmers, or another "common" job before whatever happened that started their heroic journey.

Did you mean, "no one is going to play an adventurer?" I'm pretty sure that no one in the Fellowship of the Ring was, by trade, an "adventurer." Farmer, however, would be pretty accurate for Samwise, Pippin, and Merry (Frodo was just a trust fund baby). Same goes for D&D characters: there's no Adventurer class.

Similarly in the Enemy Within Campaign my PCs have moved away from slogging through sewers and breaking into warehouses (Gaming from Below) to hobnobbing with the court of an Elector Count (Gaming from Above), in sharp contrast to their previous adventures. Now etiquette and negotiating a complex web of allegiances is more important than picking locks and fighting trolls.

So, theSword divides definitions up a bit, here. Is Gaming from Above when the PCs and/or their contacts are upper class, or is it when the related adventures are upper class? Interestingly, "gaming from above" is represented by the lord-heroes of LOTR, despite them actually "fighting trolls" (a gaming from below example).

As GM, I don't care what the status of my PCs are. They're going to trudge through the mud and steal the hearts of princes no matter who they are. Obviously, I'll tie it all into a decent tapestry, but my game generally won't be Gaming from Below where the mantra is, "we don't care who rules us or what they do, as long as we can peacefully live our sedentary lives, dance, and drink Bud Light beer."

Aside, this guy would probably identify as "fisherman":

 

[billd91]

So, theSword divides definitions up a bit, here. Is Gaming from Above when the PCs and/or their contacts are upper class, or is it when the related adventures are upper class? Interestingly, "gaming from above" is represented by the lord-heroes of LOTR, despite them actually "fighting trolls" (a gaming from below example).

I wouldn't expect any bright red lines between the two focuses of play. After all, he does indicate that the campaign may, in fact, shift in focus from one to the other.
Plus, you've got the influence of the PC origins - hence, the LotR being largely Gaming from Above. They interact with the highest echelons of society and only one of them is anything resembling a commoner (Sam, the other 3 hobbits being local aristocrats/gentlefolk families). Even the Fellowship's ultimate goal is to destroy a dangerous tyrant and put a rightful heir on his throne. While they may fight a troll, fighting a troll is incidental to that goal, and shortly thereafter they are back in the company of elven nobility. A campaign focusing on Aragorn's pre-Fellowship career would be an interesting hybrid between Gaming from Above and Gaming from Below given his origin and contact with Rivendell, but also his work in the wilderness protecting the folk of Bree and the Shire.